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The Daughters of Jerusalem
|next = }} Father Brown is laid up in his attic bedroom with a broken leg, and young Father Roland Eager is acting as his locum. His film of African orphans being shown at the Kembleford Women's Institute is switched for a pornographic film. In the following days, two members of the Institute are murdered, one poisoned and one stabbed with a hat pin. Inspector Sullivan arrests Dianah Fortescue, whose husband was earlier arrested in a Soho pornographic cinema. Brown investigates with the help of Mrs. McCarthy, Lady Felicia, Sid Carter, and a telescope. Synopsis At a village WI meeting on the eve of the village fair, a presentation by the visiting Father Roland goes awry when a film documenting the Father's work with orphans in Africa is deliberately switched with a pornographic film, much to the shock of everyone present, with an exception being Lady Felicia. The next day, at the presbytery, Father Roland puts forward his own initiative towards raising money to fix the church roof. Father Brown is confined to his bedroom whilst recovering from a broken leg and Father Roland is acting as his locum until he recovers. Sid arrives and provides Father Brown with a telescope to help alleviate his boredom, then proceeds to make fun of the incident at the WI meeting at Father Roland's expense. Later on, he sees Constable Hywel Pugh who is on his way to deliver some flowers to his girlfriend Gladys Clam, Hywel informs Father Brown that Sullivan is investigating the tampering of the film at the meeting, as the VIP guest at the meeting just so happened to be related to the Chief Superintendent. Hywel also warns that tensions are high due to the competitiveness surrounding the village fair. At the fair, the head of the WI, Dinah Fortescue, overhears Judith Bunyon joking about the film mix-up and angrily scolds her for using slander. Meanwhile, Sid continues to mock and irritate Father Roland, eventually leading to Father Roland threatening to punch Sid, before regaining his clerical composure and walks off. Meanwhile, whilst using the telescope to look out of his window, Father Brown witnesses Judith receiving a letter from the postman, upon opening the letter she is horrified by the contents and tears the letter up and puts it in a nearby rubbish bin before making her way to the fair to hear the results of the WI baking competitions. At the awards ceremony, tensions fly between Judith and Vera Thimble, the latter accusing the former of switching the cakes around, Hywel helps to defuse the situation. Mrs McCarthy is shocked that she fails to win best scones, and vents her anger at Lady Felicia, who was the stand-in judge. Suddenly, Judith collapses to the floor and dies. Inspector Sullivan immediately suspects that Judith has been poisoned and sends sample of the cake she was eating off to be examined. Mrs McCarthy and Lady Felicia, inform Father Brown of the events and the three begin to question who would have the motive to murder Judith, Father Brown gets the pair to recover the torn-up letter that Judith had earlier disposed of. The letter contains a string of numbers and "Proverbs 19:9" ("A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he who speaketh lies shall perish"), clearly a threat aimed at Judith, who was a notorious gossiper, once again casting suspicion on Dinah Fortescue, as current rumours surround regard her husband as being a frequent viewer of pornography. The two ladies take the letter to the police station where Hywel informs them that Judith's cake was laced with wasp killer. Whilst using the telescope again, Father Brown witnesses a shaken Vera Thimble confronting Dianah over a letter she has received, but Dianah strongly refutes that she sent it. After checking in at the post office, Lady Felicia informs Father Brown that the specific paper the letter was written on, had been sold to Dinah, Vera, and Mrs McCarthy; Sid however also suspects Father Roland as he gave the film to Dinah and potentially could have used the paper bought by Mrs McCarthy to write the letter. Father Brown sends them to speak with Vera about her letter, Sid notices Father Roland acting shifty and sees him posting a letter. When they arrive at Vera's house, they find that she has been murdered with a hatpin. They notice a second teacup on the table indicating she had had a visitor when she was murdered, Lady Felicia finds the letter Vera receives; it's the exact same as the one Judith received. Thanks to an innocent note left by Father Roland, Father Brown cracks the code for the numbers on Judith's letter. The numbers correspond to a date and time: 28th November 1926 at 9am. Lady Felicia and Mrs McCarthy visit the library to look at newspapers from that date. They discover that on that date, a man named Albert Evans was executed for the rape and murder of a 14 year old girl. His conviction was secured thanks to the eyewitness testimonies of Judith Bunyon, Vera Thimble and Dinah Fortescue. Meanwhile Dinah has been brought in for questioning, the hat pin that killed Vera was hers and the teacup left by Vera's body had her fingerprints and her shade of lipstick on it. Sullivan believes that she murdered Judith and Vera to stop them exposing the fact her judge husband had previously being arrested during a raid on a pornographic cinema in London. Sullivan charges Dinah with both murders. During a teabreak, Mrs McCarthy has a revelation, the teacups in Vera's house did not match, Vera took pride in her expensive tea set, but Dinah's cup was cheap china; the cup was planted at the scene, Dinah is being framed. At the police station, Hywel grants Lady Felicia and Mrs McCarthy time to speak with Dinah, she explains that Albert Evans was a violent drunk, and they believed that he did murder the young girl, however the real killer confessed many years later and Albert was posthumously pardoned. Back at the presbytery Father Brown manages to put two and two together, and knows who the killer is and that he is heading up the stairs, it's Hywel. Hywel's birth name is Stephen and he is the son of Albert Evans, he had changed his name and was sent to live with his welsh aunt after his mother committed suicide in the aftermath of his father's execution and was viciously bullied at school when the truth was revealed. His aunt was terrified of the boy being like his father and locked her room at night, such rejection instilled a deep hatred for the ones who condemned his father to death, being murderers-by-proxy. He killed Judith and Vera in revenge and then framed Dinah to put her through the same feeling of an impending execution for a crime they didn't commit. Father Brown attempts to get him to seek forgiveness and turn himself in, but he feigns remorse and ties the priest up. Hywel plans to throw Father Brown down the stairs and fake an accident but Brown's cries for help (banging his cast on the floor) attracts the attention of Father Roland, who instead of going to fetch help stays to fight the physically imposing Hywel, however the sprightly priest easily defeats Hywel and he is arrested. Father Roland had been an amateur boxer in his youth and his actions wins the praise of Sid, who apologises for winding him up. In a private conversation between the two priests, Roland confesses that he has romantic feelings for a girl he met on the Catholic mission in Africa, and his nervousness was the result of the conflicting emotions between his love for this woman, and his devotion to his faith. Father Brown provides reassurance for the embattled companion and advises him that God doesn't want to see him suffer in this way for his faith. This advice prompts Father Roland to follow his heart and he decides to leave the priesthood so he can be with the woman he loves. As he leaves the village he waves to Father Brown, as he wishes him well.